I believe it is Bosch blue, but there are a lot of black starter motors around. Whether or not the black starters are all reconditioned seems implausible. I've seen a lot of low mileage cars with either blue or black.Ken

My car is pretty original , after I washed all the grime, oil and dust of my engine I found the starter motor to be bosch blue in colour. I purchased another grey motor complete and after a clean up the starter was bosch blue in colour. I don't know the answer but I'm leaving mine the colour I found them in.

Rod

Logged

FC the Marilyn Monroe of Holdens. All the curves in exactly the right places!

Hmm. FB/EKs certainly had Bosch blue four-brush starters and (if Bosch) voltage regulator covers. FJs had orange 6-V two-brush starters, generators and voltage regulator covers. I'm not so certain about FE/FC though, but my hunch is that the 12-V, two-brush Bosch starter would have been black, as were the FE/FC Bosch voltage regulator covers. The paint colour would have been the way to tell a two-brush 12-V starter from its four-brush sibling in the field.

Of course, Rod, the only way to be sure is to pull the starter motor out, pop the commutator cover off, and see whether it's a two- or four-brush starter motor. I think it would have been a common thing to replace a two-brush starter motor with a four-brush one.

Ken: Did four-brush starter motors find their way onto late production FCs, like paper-element air cleaners did?

My late 59 FC had an original 2 brush starter which was black along with the cover on the regulator. I fitted a 4 brush starter which was originally blue. Another difference in the starters is in the end cap. The black one has a very square end where the 4 brush cap is slightly rounded where the vertical meets the horizontal.